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Mobike raises over USD600m in Series E financing led by Tencent

Smart bike-sharing company Mobike has raised over USD600 million in a new round of financing led by existing investor Tencent, plus Sequoia, TPG, and Hillhouse Capital, among others.

New investors in this round included leading banks BOCOM International, ICBC International, and global institutional asset management firm Farallon Capital. China Renaissance acted as the exclusive financial advisor to Mobike.
 
Davis Wang, CEO and Co-founder of Mobike, says: “Mobike is the global leader in smart bike-sharing and through our relentless commitment to innovation we offer the world’s most advanced and user-friendly bike-sharing platform. We are pleased to secure the continued support of leading investors who share our vision for the transformative potential of the Mobike platform. Our platform is already revolutionising how people move in cities around the world; transforming the urban transportation landscape.
 
In the first six months of 2017 alone, Mobike expanded to 100 cities – which was the initial target for the full year of 2017. During this time, the company also developed strategic partnerships with leading companies such as Foxconn, Dow Chemical, Hanergy and China Recycling Development, in areas such as supply chain management, new material R&D, mobile renewable energy, product lifecycle management, and so on. The company is also rolling out a global IoT network in partnership with leading telecom/IoT companies such as Qualcomm, Ericsson, Vodafone, China Mobile, and Huawei, establishing a strong foundation for the company’s accelerating global expansion.
 
Wang adds: “With the continuing support of our investors, we have three clear targets for the coming months. Firstly, we will accelerate the pace of global expansion, and our new target is to be in 200 cities by the end of this year. Secondly, we will increase investment in R&D of our IoT network and new technologies; working closely with our global-leading technology partners. And thirdly, we will invest in building a superior technology infrastructure to support our innovations in the field of AI and intelligent hardware, which will further bolster our competitive advantage and enable us to offer the best possible experience to Mobike users globally.”
 
Tencent, the lead investor in this round, first invested in Mobike in October 2016, and led the Series D round in January 2017. As one of the company’s most important strategic partners, its participation in this round underlines its commitment to, and support of, Mobike’s business model and its recognition of the company’s growth trajectory.
 
Pony Ma, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Tencent, says: “At Tencent we have great admiration for Mobike’s vision, and we are very optimistic about its future prospects. Over the past year, Mobike has achieved incredible growth. We will continue to offer our core resources and all the support we can – including through our very successful WeChat partnership – to continuously empower Mobike’s growth, innovation and expansion.”
 
Alongside its role as strategic investor, Tencent has also developed a strong business partnership with Mobike which driven significant results. In February 2017, Mobike became one of the first companies to launch a mini-app on Tencent’s WeChat social messaging app. The partnership also allows users to scan and unlock a Mobike without leaving the WeChat app. Mobike is now also integrated as one of the key functions in WeChat’s massively popular WePay Wallet feature. This frictionless access to WeChat’s more than 900 million monthly active users has driven a rapid increase in the pace of Mobike’s new user acquisition.
 
Neil Shen, Founding and Managing Partner of Sequoia Capital China, says: “Over the past 12 months, Mobike impressed us by its high speed development and remarkable innovation capability. Meanwhile Mobike has achieved dominant market place with competitive advantages. Sequoia Capital China has confidence in the long-term development and global expansion of Mobike and hope we could help Mobike go global as a model of “China Innovation
 
Mobike is now active in more than 100 cities globally, and operates more than 5 million bikes around the world. The platform supports more than 25 million rides a day at peak times, with over 100 million registered users, making it the largest smart bike-sharing company globally.
 
Mobike was first launched in Shanghai on April 22nd 2016, and has since then expanded across China and into Singapore and the UK. Recently, the company announced that it will soon launch in the UK cities of Manchester and Salford, working closely with Transport for Greater Manchester.
 
Every Mobike is equipped with a GPS-enabled smart lock, which connects the bike to Mobike’s IoT network – the world’s largest IoT network. This enables the company to monitor the health and location of the bike at all times – and to leverage its database of more than 5TB of data daily to develop innovative AI-powered solutions that enable the company to better anticipate and address user demand, and solve common transportation challenges. 

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